Ron Cey will join Legends of Dodger Baseball in July

Longtime Dodgers third baseman, fifth in franchise history in home runs and sixth among hitters in Wins Above Replacement, will be honored during alumni weekend at Dodger Stadium prior to a game against the Brewers

Longtime Dodgers third baseman Ron Cey will be inducted into the Legends of Dodger Baseball on Friday, July 18, an honor that was a long time coming and suggests a repaired relationship between the franchise and one of its former stars.

Cey’s ceremony will come before a game against the Brewers, kicking off alumni weekend at Dodger Stadium. A bobblehead of Cey will be given away that Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

When I interviewed him in November 2023 regarding his biography — ‘Penguin Power,: Dodger Blue, Hollywood Lights, and My One-in-a-Million Big League Journey,’ written with longtime Dodgers beat reporter Ken Gurnick — Cey said he no longer had a relationship with the team.

Things improved last season, as Cey took part in alumni weekend in August, during which his former teammate Dusty Baker was inducted into the Legends of Dodgers Baseball. Cey, Baker, Reggie Smith, and Steve Garvey recreated their iconic photo from 47 years prior, when they were the first major league quartet of teammates to hit 30 home runs in the same season.

Cey was a six-time All-Star with the Dodgers, with whom he played the first 12 seasons of his 17-year major league career. He ranks fifth in franchise history in home runs (228) and walks (765), is sixth in rWAR (47.7), and 10th in RBI.

“I didn’t think that I needed to stand in front of the camera to justify getting an interview, or I thought my play would be good enough, and I was wrong,” Cey said in November 2023. “I thought naively about it, and if I was going to take better advantage of it, I would probably put myself in a better position to be more vocal about my play.”

Cey, who turns 77 years old in February, will be the ninth inductee into the Legends of Dodger Baseball. Don Newcombe, Steve Garvey, and Fernando Valenzuela were so honored in 2019, and Valenzuela later got his number 34 retired in 2023. Maury Wills and Kirk Gibson were inducted into the Legends of Dodger Baseball in 2022, Manny Mota and Orel Hershiser got the call in 2023, and Baker was inducted last season.